Tag Archives: outfit

Birthday dress!

Birthday dress

Birthday dress

Birthday dress

Birthday dress

Birthday dressdress: self-made // shoes: Seychelles // tights: F21

Everyone, meet Birthday Dress!

I’ve been so excited to share this and I pretty much ran right upstairs to take photos within three minutes of the last stitch. Did I mention it’s about 30 degrees outside? I had a severely runny nose by the end. Yikes.

Anyway, I can’t remember where exactly at the moment, but I saw this dress a few weeks ago (probably on Pinterest, actually) and decided right then and there that it was going to be birthday dress. I already knew I would use McCall 6646 and figured the black fabric wouldn’t be too hard to find, so I went to work looking up what types of beads to use.

Screen Shot 2014-03-07 at 5.14.53 PMPhoto from Modcloth.com

I looked at Etsy, Joann’s, Fire Mountain Gems, and Sewfisticated and ended up cobbling together a nice selection of the necessary beads. If you look at the closeups you’ll see that there’s bugle beads outlining the curlicues and then inside them, it alternates one larger bead and three small seed beads. There seem to be three types of larger beads that are randomly alternating: pearls, montee rhinestones, and some sort of faceted bead. I had some pearls left over from a previous project and for some reason Sewfisticated sells 20g bags of 1/4″ bugle beads for $0.49 so those were easy. I decided to use bicone Swarovski knockoffs from Joann’s and then found these guys on Etsy.

The dress itself was pretty easy to put together but I got a little too excited and sort of jumped the gun and put the bottom half of the dress together before I actually bought the chiffon for the top bit, which meant that that was much more difficult to attach. Whoops. It worked out though! I just ended up making some bias tape out of the chiffon (SO much fun, guys) and reinforcing the heart-shaped neckline with it to conceal where the chiffon top attached.

Anyways, I’m incredibly relieved that I managed to get it done in time! My actual birthday was on Wednesday (27 – yikes!) but a super busy week means we’re doing celebrations tonight instead.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

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Ping copies Sarah’s Skaterfrew

Skaterfrew

Skaterfrew

Skaterfrew

Skaterfrew
dress: self-made, patterns here & here // shoes: Swedish Hasbeens // belt: thrifted // headband: F21

First of all, I absolutely loved hearing about everybody’s WIPs and it’s SO nice to know I’m not the only one with the attention span of a goldfish when it comes to unfinished projects. I’m thinking of making this a regular thing. I think every few weeks or so I’ll pick four things to finish in a set amount of time. If anyone wants to join me, feel free! Conquer all the WIP piles!

Anddd onto this lovely dress. If you haven’t seen Sarah’s Skaterfrew over on Katy & Laney you should probably go check it out immediately. I was already eyeing the Renfrew pattern but her dress version totally pushed me over the fence.

I’m going to have to steal Sonja’s term here because this one absolutely falls in the realm of secret pajamas. Full disclosure though, luckily you can’t tell because of the drapey collar, but I totally underestimated how much fabric I’d need (to be fair Sarah totally warned me). I’d forgotten (again!) that you have to cut out two collar pieces, both cut on the fold. Whoops. I was about an inch short on either side but I somehow made it work.

I’m definitely going to make a few more of these though! It’s perfect for those days when all you want to do is lie in bed all day imitating a slug but things like ‘sponsatilities and adulthood make you go to work.

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A wearable hug

Anthro cowlneck

Anthro cowlneck

Anthro cowlnecksweater: self-made, pattern here // pants: Paige denim // glasses: Bonlook // boots: Boutique 9 // headband: Modcloth

I made this sweater ages ago, loved it until it was finished, blocked it, and then hated how it turned out and never wore it. It’s lived in one of those Ikea underbed storage boxes ever since.

I pulled it out again recently and I can’t remember why I hated it so much. It’s super cozy, it’s basically like wearing a hug, and as an added bonus, no long sleeves to get in the way!

Anyway, I love this pattern and I think my former ambivalence toward the finished garment is moreso a reflection of my belief that I can’t pull off this shape. That and the sleeves turned out a little weird after blocking. The pattern itself is based on this Anthropologie sweater and I think the designer did an incredible job matching the original! The only thing that’s different is the cowl: the original has a horizontal cable thingy that looks slightly complicated and honestly kind of odd.

On an unrelated note, is anyone else sewing up an Albion for the Colette sewalong? I’m sooo behind.

PS Thanks for all the well-wishes! I’m finally completely free of the clutches of the plague of doom.

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Renfreezing

Pink Renfrew

Pink Renfrew

Pink Renfrew

Pink Renfrewtop: self-made, pattern here // skirt: self-made, tutorial here // coat: Anthropologie // belt: Modcloth // boots: Boutique 9 // tights: Chinese Laundry

I have a bit of a tendency to go a little crazy when I discover a pattern I like. It’s how I ended up with six Daturas and six Archers. Not to mention four Darling Ranges and three Belladones. And the bajillion S1873s and B7739s.

The point is, I think Renfrew is next.

In other news, that sickness that has been going around finally found me. I’ll be in bed snuggling tissues and Nyquil.

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Brain clutter

White vintage dress

White vintage dress

White vintage dress

White vintage dress
dress: vintage // sweater: Gap // shoes: UO Ecote // tights: Lemon

It’s funny how things due in the spring can seem so far off before the holidays, and then as soon as it’s January all the deadlines suddenly loom so much closer. I have what is sort of a Masters thesis due at the beginning of April and that suddenly feels like it’s about two weeks away.

My coping mechanisms this week have been to shop for seasonally inappropriate vintage dresses and to reorganize my sewing stash. After that I managed to sit down and crank out a few pages today so I think it seems to be working! Hee.

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